Rapper Chika says she was handcuffed with zip ties and detained for 7 hours without food or water for protest
Rapper Chika posted a video on May 31 detailing her experience at a Los Angeles protest over the weekend. In the lengthy clip, she spoke about her and her manager's calm behavior at an event protesting the death of George Floyd. She explained that she wanted to leave an account of what she experienced before going to sleep. She recounted that she was handcuffed with zip ties and detained for seven hours without a proper arrest and was not read her Miranda Rights.
She continued that there was a period of time where she was kept on a bus with sheets of metal between her and other detainees. Chika also mentioned how she calmly confronted the police, questioning why protestors were forced to leave the area. "Hey, look me in my face. What are we doing wrong? Cause this is a constitutional right to protest," she recalled telling one black police officer.
She added that one officer told her the event was an unlawful protest, to which she replied, "No it's not... you literally can't tell me that because everybody out here knows our rights." Chika added: "They said, 'Well someone set a cop car on fire, and because of them this whole thing is shut down'." Quoting the cop who said, "because somebody set that car on fire, all y'all need to go home," Chika said she told him, "So, if you can tell me by that logic if one cop kills somebody, your statement then is 'not all cops are bad', and that's what you want us to believe, right?... So, if one protester sets a fire, how is this entire thing—there are 10,000 people out here—how is this entire thing somehow unlawful?"
The cop then told Chika, "This conversation is over." When she asked, "why?" the officer walked away. Chika noted that she was detained when she saw police officers approaching her manager, who was trying to make her way through the crowds to leave the protest at that time. She then joined her manager so she wouldn't be detained alone. Chika also claimed that officers weren't letting her or other detained protesters eat, drink water or use a bathroom for seven hours. Additionally, she mentioned being held on a bus without masks, in close quarters, separated by thin metal.
Watch the video of her account here and more clips of the protest on her Instagram here.